Kensington Palace exhibition on Sophia Duleep Singh and sisters
A new exhibition at Kensington Palace explores the lives of Sophia Duleep Singh and her sisters, highlighting their roles in suffrage and social reform.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story.
A new exhibition at Kensington Palace, titled "The Last Princesses of Punjab," marks 150 years since the birth of Sophia Duleep Singh, daughter of the last ruler of the Sikh empire and god-daughter of Queen Victoria. The show explores the lives of Sophia and her sisters, Bamba and Catherine, who devoted themselves to activism despite being born into privilege and later facing the trauma of British colonial rule.
Their father, Duleep Singh, was deposed and stripped of his title after the British invaded and won the war against the Sikh Empire. The Kohinoor diamond, taken from the family, was not returned. Queen Victoria became godmother to his daughters. The exhibition brings together objects scattered by dispossession, with Sikh collectors helping to reunite items that symbolise both loss and community commitment.
The sisters turned their anger into positive action. Sophia fought for women's rights, nursed Indian soldiers wounded in France and Belgium, and as a suffragette boycotted the 1911 census, writing on the form: "No vote, no census. As women do not count, they refuse to be counted." She also wrote a letter of complaint to Winston Churchill about police brutality. Catherine moved to Germany with her girlfriend Lina and sheltered at least 11 Jewish refugees before the Second World War. At age 89, Bamba wrote to British administrators protesting the partition of India.
The exhibition's curator highlighted how Sophia's contribution to the suffragette movement has been largely ignored. Many suffragettes who wrote memoirs in the 1930s and 1940s did not mention her, raising questions about why her story was erased. The sisters had no children, so their legacy now depends on visitors carrying their stories forward. The exhibition also recalls their grandmother, Maharani Jind Kaur, who fought against British rule and whose ashes were taken to Lahore by the sisters to rest beside their grandfather, the founder of the Sikh empire.
On screen
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Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, mapped by channel. Ordered by how many channels carried each claim.
| Claim | Channel 4 |
|---|---|
| Bamba Duleep Singh protested the partition of India at age 89. | |
| Catherine Duleep Singh sheltered at least 11 Jewish refugees in Germany. | |
| Sophia Duleep Singh boycotted the 1911 census as a suffragette protest. |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
Channel 4 focused on the historical and political context of the Duleep Singh family, weaving together the sisters' activism with broader themes of colonial dispossession and erasure. The report included interviews with the exhibition's curator, emphasising Sophia's overlooked role in the suffragette movement and the need for such stories to be taught in schools. The tone was respectful and educational, with a strong narrative arc from the family's loss to their resilience.
- “They used this part of their life to do something positive and contribute to society.”
- “We need to ask why was her contribution erased and not told.”
- “Sisters fighting for a sisterhood that ultimately excluded their contributions from the history books.”
Broadcast Timeline
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